Published: August 09, 2008 10:07 pm            

Baby Birds interact with children

BLUEFIELD — Many kids spend their Saturday mornings asleep in their warm beds or in front of their televisions watching “SpongeBob SquarePants.” But on this particular Saturday morning, a group of kids sacrificed these luxuries for the chance to learn baseball from the professionals.

The Bluefield Orioles held their annual baseball clinic Saturday morning at Bowen Field. Thirty-five kids ranging from age 6 to 16 and from various parts of Four Seasons Country came to hone their skills and receive expert teaching from Orioles coaches and players.

“We’re here not only to play baseball and to make ourselves better and these players better with the Orioles, but to improve the quality of play in this area,” said Bluefield Orioles General Manager Mike Showe.

“I feel like I have a responsibility year-round to promote the game of baseball to young kids anywhere from five years old to high-school age. We’ve always tried to do our best job at getting more people involved.”

Orioles manager Orlando Gomez and several of his coaches and players took time to involve themselves with the kids. Gomez did not have the opportunity to attend clinics like this one while he was growing up in the Dominican Republic. So he cherishes the chance to give others an outlet he did not have.

“It’s very nice,” Gomez said. “I enjoy working with kids, you know. Through the years when I come to the states even in the Major League level, some places we give clinics in the mornings and everything.

“That brings me back to when I was a kid, too. We don’t have this opportunity that they’re having now. We have to learn the game by ourselves. But it’s fun. You learn with kids, too. You watch them doing stuff and you learn.”

Gomez can draw from his 44 previous seasons in baseball to teach from. But he knows experience is the best instructor.

“It’s nice to teach the kids knowledge and let them know and teaching the right way and everything,” Gomez said. “With kids like this especially, you cannot talk too much to. Eventually you’re just playing and try to show them how to do things because they learn it quicker.”

The kids were divided into five groups. Each group spent time at five different stations dedicated to specific skills: catching, infield play, outfield play, pitching and hitting.

Each of these stations was manned by a Bluefield Orioles player and each of them took time to emphasize the basics. Josh Tarnow was in the batting cages, helping to fix swings by adjusting body parts as needed.

Preston Pehrson was behind the plate, showing the youngsters how to squat properly and signal pitches among other things. On the basepath between second and third, Daniel Eastham helped Buck Britton develop some future infielders.

After receiving instruction on the proper fielding stance — legs wide, glove to the ground — the kids took some grounders. Then they had the chance to turn some double-play balls with Britton being the finishing link.

These were starting points. But starting points eventually lead to finishing points.

“First you have to teach the kids the balance point, how to get into a correct way fielding, hitting, catching, pitching,” Gomez said. “You always start from the bottom. It’s almost like when you’re building a house or something like that. You start with the foundation. And that’s what the kids are going to have to start with, the foundation too so they can learn.”

But the players also connected with the kids on a basic level. Britton admitted to one youngster that he loved to play video games, then asked him, “You play ‘Rock Band’?”

The kids also got a glimpse of what they could become if they work hard enough and apply themselves.

“I know when I was a little kid I used to come over here to clinics and I looked forward to it all year long,” Showe said. “You’re getting out here on the stadium field here at Bowen Field, taking my shot at the big guys.”

Gomez hopes that the budding baseball players will learn to respect the game as much as he does. But he noted that one thing must take place before that can happen.

“Baseball is a beautiful thing,” Gomez said. “The thing about baseball is that you have to learn how to respect yourself, not only in baseball but probably in life. But in baseball you have to deal with other stuff, too and when you learn to respect yourself you learn to respect the game and all the people and everything. It’s a wonderful game.”

Showe and Gomez are appreciative of the support they have received during a sometimes-trying season. So they are more than happy to reward those supporters by sharing their knowledge of the game and passing it on to the next generation.

“We try in any way we can to give back to the community,” Showe said. “But this is a good way for us during the season when our players are here to donate our time and give back.”

“The community deserves it,” Gomez said. “We’ve lost the whole season. They came into the games and enjoyed the games. And they deserve it. I think this is a beautiful thing. I’m glad that we’re doing it and the kids are enjoying it.”

— Contact Jed Lockett

at jlockett@bdtonline.com

        

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